US, Israel behind Iran scientist killing

Iran's parliament speaker Ali Larijani on Sunday accused the United States and Israel of masterminding the killing of a scientist in Tehran, Mehr news agency reported. "The American-Zionist terrorist act yesterday (Saturday) against one of the country's scientists is yet another sign of the Americans' degree of animosity," Larijani told parliament. "America must think carefully about the consequences of such actions," he said, urging Iran's security forces to give a "stronger response to such evil moves." Assailants riding a motorcycle shot dead 35-year-old Dariush Rezaei in the capital on Saturday evening, said Iranian media which originally reported he was a "physics professor and nuclear scientist." On Sunday the reports stopped referring to him as a nuclear scientist, with Fars news agency suggesting he was an "electronics master's student at Khajeh Nassir University" in Tehran and had connections with the defence ministry. In a condolence message, the university's president, Majid Qasemi, said Rezaei was "among the country's elites and was studying at the faculty of electronics." ISNA news agency had said Rezaei was an expert associated with the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, while Mehr news agency said the victim had a degree in neutron physics and undertook research for the organisation. According to reports on Sunday, Rezaei was shot five times by unknown assailants on a motorbike as he and his wife were waiting for his child in front of a kindergarten in Tehran. His wife was injured in the attack. Rezaei's funeral was to take place at noon on Sunday. Several Iranian nuclear scientists have disappeared in recent years or been targeted in attacks the Islamic republic has blamed on the United States and Israel, which suspect Tehran's atomic programme masks a nuclear weapons drive. Tehran denies the charges, insisting that its atomic programme is entirely peaceful.